The Outsider
by flowerllama98
Summary: What if a Harry Potter fan was plunged into the world of the books? What if she was the only one who could save countless lives? What if she fell in love with a fictional character in the process?
1. Chapter 1: Take the Plunge

**The Outsider**

**Chapter 1: Take the Plunge**

Madison Bennet sighed as she closed 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' for what felt like the hundredth time. She paused to reflect on what a great peace of literature the series of seven books was, and how the characters really did seem to come to life, as if they, too, were breathing and alive. She had felt Harry's pain in fifth year as he struggled to come to terms with his ordeal in the grave yard. She had desperately wanted to jinx the hell out of Umbridge the Toad when she was Headmistress of Hogwarts. She had cried with George and the rest of the Weasleys when Fred had been killed. Yes, it was all so real. Maddi ran her hands over her thighs covered in her favourite dark blue jeans and heaved herself up out of her squishy chair, pushing on her knees; it was all a fantasy, of course. She could never be a part of it, the excitement and adventure of Hogwarts.

Suddenly she was falling, like the floor of her bedroom had fallen out from under her feet: what was going on? And she wasn't even falling, so much as floating. It was so dark; it felt like she was enveloped in storm clouds. Her curly, dark brown hair floated around her face like a ghost, and something of a gentle breeze tugged at her white shirt and her pale yellow pull-over. She looked up: she could see her room, but growing fainter and fainter by the minute. She looked down: she saw shapes, things; they were blurry but getting clearer and clearer all the time. She was moving much faster than she'd first thought. _What is going on?_ Maddi thought, starting to panic now. Abruptly, her feet found hard stone. She stood, her eyes growing wider and wider, drinking in the sight, the real, true, the unabridged and uncensored, Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Bloody hell," she whispered.


	2. Chapter 2: Yes, She Is All Knowing

**Chapter 2: Yes, She Is All-Knowing**

Maddi looked around wildly, trying to make sense of this completely illogical situation. What the bloody hell had happened? First she was in her room, in a little town in bloody Australia, and now she was somewhere in the middle of England at bloody Hogwarts! This was definitely a far cry from the countless headcannons and fan fictions she'd read, far from what she'd imagined; she was here! In the flesh! Hogwarts was so much more than what she'd thought! It was only then she realised that she must have interrupted Dumbledore's start-of-year speech. The room was completely silent and everyone was staring at her. What was she to do? What was she to say? She was pretty sure there wasn't anything in any book or magazine about, "What to do if you're thrown into the fictional world of Harry Potter."

"Ah-hem. May I help you?" a strange voice questioned her. She knew exactly from whose mouth it came.

"Professor Dumbledore?" she whispered

"It is I."

"Professor, if I could have a moment, could I just try and assess this situation? I have no wand; I can't do any damage," Maddi replied a bit more confidently this time.

"Very well," Dumbledore smiled. "You may, as you say, 'assess'."

Maddi looked around the room. Immediately she identified the Gryffindor table, due to the large amount of ginger-haired, freckly kids sitting there, eyeing her up and down with curiosity and a hint of suspicion, as was everyone else. She walked slowly over to the table, nervously pulling the sleeves of her shirt over her hands. Her huge, brown eyes flicked up and down the table until she found the people she sought. She stepped toward the youngest of the ginger clan, who was sitting close to a short boy with jet black hair that he obviously hadn't touched since he got up that morning. Further down the table she spied a small girl with a shock of fizzy, mousy brown hair, framing her strangely wise face. Maddi approached the ginger boy and his dark haired friend. As she came closer, the red-headed boy's expression of horror intensified, until she reached them when it looked like he was going to jump up and run away.

"Hi. You're Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, aren't you? "Maddi questioned the two frightened boys as cheerily as she could. It was the dark haired one who answered.

"Yeah. I'm Harry and he's Ron," Harry said boldly, gesturing to his trembling friend.

"Brilliant," Maddi smiled. She looked further down the table, and strode towards the girl with the bushy hair and the wise face, who was looking at her with nothing but curiosity and intrigue in her eyes.

"And you, my dear, are Hermione Granger, yeah?" Hermione nodded.

"May I ask you three, what year are you in this year?" Maddi was eager to discover; if everything went according to the events that occurred in the books, she wanted to know what to watch out for.

"First," Hermione stated manner-of-factly.

_Philosopher's Stone_, Maddi thought automatically. She was older; the same age as Fred and George. She also remembered their birthdays being around the same time, early April. She walked briskly toward the fiery- haired twins. "And you two are Fred and George Weasley," she stated; she didn't need to guess now.

"At your service," they said in unison, and promptly stood up and bowed. Maddi giggled, and the twin she was pretty sure was George winked at her. She scanned the table quickly and pointed out the people she recognised by forming their features in her imagination. "Lee Jordan," she said quickly. "I am," smiled the fuzzy haired, dark skinned boy seated next to Fred. "And you three are Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, hey?" The all nodded, assuring Maddi that she was correct.

"Neville Longbottom!" she cried to and awkward looking boy at the other end of the table, and ran up to him. "How's Trevor? Did you find him?" she giggled. "H-how d'you know about Trevor?" the nervous boy stammered. Maddi winked mischievously at him. She saw Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, and she found Percy Weasley, with his horn-rimmed glasses and greatly annoyed him when she called him 'Perfect Percy', much to the glee of Fred and George. She started to build confidence and didn't feel as awkward and wary now. Maddi felt the atmosphere in the Hall relax. She rattled off the names of most of the teachers and what subjects they taught, pointed out the heads of houses and that which they belonged to. She pointed out the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, and recognised Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory. Finally, at the end of the Hall, she reached the Slytherin. Maddi's face fell, not in anger and hatred but in sadness and disappointment. Her eyes flickered to lock with a small, pale faced and platinum-haired boy, flanked by two huge boys with vacant expressions. The small boy in the middle grimaced at her, and her eyes darkened. She pointed to each of them. "Draco Malfoy," she said blankly, pointing at the middle boy. "Vincent Crabbe," she spoke to the boy on Malfoy's left now. "And Gregory Goyle," she spoke to the last of Malfoy's little posse. Malfoy's scowl grew deeper.

"But tell us;" Hermione piped up from the other end of the room, not noticing the silent battle that was going on between Maddi and the Slytherin boys, "You seem to know a lot about us, how did you find out all of this?"

"You're right to be suspicious," Maddi sighed; she didn't know if she could tell them. But then Dumbledore saved her from having to say anything about that matter, for the time being.

"I think the more important question to be asked, Miss Granger is, why is it that we know nothing about you, Miss..?" the white-haired man probed, his sharp blue eyes looking straight into Maddi's soul.

"Bennet. Madison Bennet. But everyone calls me Maddi," she revealed.

"Well, Miss Bennet, since you came so unexpectedly and dramatically into our midst and you seem to know so much about us, it seems only fair that we should be allowed to comb your brain, don't you think?"

"Certainly, sir. What is it that you would like to know?"


	3. Chapter 3: What You Needed to Know

**Chapter 3: What You Needed To Know**

_This is __insane__!_ Reality was starting to kick in for Maddi _A room full of people want to know about me, so I'm supposed to stand up here and make a bloody speech or something? What the __bloody hell__? _She gulped. "Well," she began, where was she to start? "My name is Madison Bennet. I live, or lived; I'm not sure which right now, in a small town in Australia."

"That's why you've got a funny accent!" Lee Jordan yelled from the Gryffindor table. Everyone laughed, including Maddi.

"True blue, mate," she said in her best Steve Irwin accent. The laughter intensified, filling the entire room. It was a relief to Maddi; she began to relax.

"I am thirteen years old, and, well, I really don't know why I'm here," she sighed. "I have absolutely no idea what's going on." She paused, and looked at the old Headmaster, fully expecting him to be staring at her with utter disbelief.

"Tell us, Miss Bennet, if you please, how is it that you came to be here?" Dumbledore asked calmly, as if he fully believed every single word she said.

"Well, I was reading a book in my bedroom," she continued tentatively; she thought it unwise to specify which book, "And suddenly I was kind of falling, and I ended up standing in the middle of your lovely Great Hall."

"So, you know where you are, young lady?" Dumbledore asked with surprise.

"Of course! I'm at Hogwarts!" Maddi stated. _Obviously,_ she thought sarcastically.

"Well, Miss Bennet, if you would be so kind as to come with me. Minerva," he gestured to the wise, bespectacled professor, "If you would please come also. Students, to your dormitories, please." As he said this there was a great noise of the scraping of benches, and prefects yelling out to first years. Maddi was whisked away straight down the centre of the room with the two wise old people, ignoring the stares and whispers from the other students. Maddi was almost running trying to keep up with her guides; they weaved through corridors, walked through chambers and climbed what seemed endless flights of stairs for her tired feet until finally they reached the gargoyle guarding the entrance to the Headmasters tower. "Chocolate Frogs," Dumbledore said, and the gargoyle jumped aside to reveal a spiral staircase winding upwards. Without a word the three began to climb, until they reached the grand carved door with the knocker shaped like a lions' head. Dumbledore opened it silently and gestured for the two ladies to enter. Not for the first time that night, Maddi tugged nervously pulled the sleeves of her shirt over her hands as she stepped inside.


	4. Chapter 4: Questions

**Chapter 4: Questions**

"Miss Bennet, as you may know we have to be very careful when strange things such as this occur. The safety of our students is our first priority, you understand," Dumbledore said quietly. "In a moment our Potions master, Professor Snape, (Maddi winced at the name) will be arriving with a potion by the name of Vertiserum. Do you know what the effects of this are to the drinker, Miss Bennet?"

"Yes, sir. It is a powerful serum that causes the drinker to speak only the truth," Maddi replied, not unlike Hermione. A small smile flicked across her lips as she remembered the 'WingARdium LeviOsar' episode

"Very good. Ah, here is Professor Snape now," Dumbledore nodded at the greasy-haired man. Maddi shivered under Snape's glare of complete distaste. He was carrying a small vial of clear liquid.

"Drink this," Snape said in a slow, monotonous voice and pushed the vial towards her. Maddi obeyed; she uncorked the bottle and drank all the contents in one gulp. Instantly, she felt completely drained of any self-control, and any emotion for that matter; she felt as if she could spill her guts about anything asked of her.

"Now, Miss Bennet, tell me how is it that you know so much about the school," Dumbledore asked calmly.

"It's all in books," Maddi replied, in a flat, lifeless voice that couldn't possibly be her own. "A series of books called the Harry Potter series. They are extremely famous. There are seven in all; one for each year that Harry Potter is at Hogwarts. 'Harry Potter and the Philosophers' Stone', 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets', 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban', 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' and 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'," she concluded.

Professor McGonagall's eyes grew wider and wider as she had spoken and as she said 'Deathly Hallows' the old woman gasped, but the two men in the room gazed at her with not a flicker of emotion in their eyes.

"Now, Madison, was everything that you told the students in the Great Hall the truth?" Dumbledore continued in his interrogation.

"Every word," Maddi replied.

"Madison," Dumbledore spoke her name with such seriousness and authority, "You must tell no one about the events that unfold in those books. You must not write it down, and you must try not to think about it. The parallels in time and between two worlds are fragile and must not be disturbed. And just to be certain, Madison, I am going to have to erase your memory of all things to do with those books. We cannot risk it. I promise you will not lose any other part of your memory, you have my word. Severus, if you could please give her the antidote." Snape appeared out of the shadows with a vial of blue liquid and instructed Maddi to drink. Mind still blank, she obeyed. Immediately, as though a fog had been lifted, her mind became clear, and she fully realised what Dumbledore intended.

"But sir, think of the lives I could save! When Voldemort…" McGonagall flinched, "…returns I could stop people dying!" Maddi was almost shouting now, but she didn't care; what did he think he was doing!

"Madison, as you should by now know; terrible things have happened to wizards who meddle in time, and you are no exception. Now, sit still please, clear your mind and relax," the old man's voice was soothing as he walked toward her, the Elder Wand in his hand.

_Should Maddi have her memories erased, taken out of her mind and put in a bottle so that they can be experienced in a Pensive or should she be allowed to keep the secret on her own? Vote!_


	5. Chapter 5: Self Control

**Chapter 5: Self-Control**

_**Hey ma people! Long time no see! Many, many apologies for the lack of posts lately it's a very poor excuse, but I've been UNBELIEVEABLY busy. Hope you enjoy this random chapter. Thanks everyone who voted)**_

_**You seriously don't know how amazing it makes me feel when you review, so virtual cookies to the people who make my day! Love you guys)**_

"Albus, wait," the bespectacled woman in the corner had been uncharacteristically quiet until this moment; her words pierced the air like a knife.

"Allow her to keep her memories. Removing them would only cause confusion in her own mind; remembering her old life, but not understanding what it is would only confuse the poor child," McGonagall said stiffly.

Dumbledore paused, and stood so still for so long that Maddi thought that one of the other teachers in the room had cast some sort of spell on the old man. Finally, his ice-sliver eyes flicked to Snape.

"What are your thoughts on this Severus?" he asked softly.

"She cannot be trusted," Snape replied in his low, monotone voice.

"And I suppose you are the expert on this girl, are you, Severus?" McGonagall snapped, suddenly furious. "She could've told every person in the Great Hall what she just told us, as quick as look at them, but she chose not to. We have no reason not to trust her."

"Calm yourself, Minerva. I am sure Severus was only thinking of the safety of the school," Dumbledore soothed.

"Please, Albus," McGonagall pleaded in a small voice. Maddi was taken aback. The strong, brisk woman she had seen in the Great Hall and imagined in her head all throughout her journey with the Harry Potter books was gone, to be replaced by a small, lost child. She stared at the old woman intently, and suddenly realised that her eyes were filling with tears. Dumbledore softened.

"If you feel so strongly about it, Minerva," the old man put his hand on hers kindly. Then his piercing blue eyes flicked to Maddi. "Miss Bennet, I will allow you to keep your memories. If you prove to Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and myself that you can be trusted, you will be allowed to retain them indefinitely. If not, I will have to erase them. Is that understood?"

Maddi was giddy with relief. "Yes, totally, completely, indubitably," she grinned.

"Excellent. Now, it is late. Are you hungry, Miss Bennet?" Dumbledore asked, a small smile playing at his lips.

"Famished, sir," Maddi replied; her mouth watered at the thought of her first taste of Hogwarts food.

"I expected so. I shall take you down to the kitchens for some sustenance, and then I shall take you to the Room of Requirement. You may sleep there, and in the morning we will decide what we shall do with you now that you are here," Dumbledore told her smoothly.

"Sounds good to me," Maddi replied, barely able to contain her excitement.

"Let us be off then!" Dumbledore announced.

Maddi nearly bounded out of the grand circular room with glee after Dumbledore. But not even her euphoria could mask the glare of pure hate from the greasy-haired man that followed her out of the office boring into her back.


	6. Chapter 6: Decisions, Decisions

**Chapter 6: Decisions, Decisions**

Maddi opened her milky brown eyes slowly, squinting in protest at the bright sunlight streaming through her window. She expected to see the sky blue walls of her bedroom with her mural of magazine clippings staring back at her. Instead she stared at a rough but beautiful stone wall draped in rich tapestries bearing the Hogwarts crest. The disoriented girl sat bolt upright in her soft bed, and looked around frantically for a few seconds, until the memories of the night before came rushing back.

She padded over to an intricately carved chest and opened it. Inside sat plain black robes, red stockings, a grey skirt, a white shirt and a black tie emblazoned again with the Hogwarts crest. To the students they were plain, dull and boring. To Maddi they were garments fit for a queen.

She dressed quickly and opened the door of the Room. Instead of opening onto the seventh floor corridor and faced with the tapestry depicting Boris the Balmy, however, as she expected, she found herself face to face with the gargoyle that guarded the entrance to the Headmaster's office.

"Ah," it droned. "The mysterious Miss Bennett."

"Um… yes…," Maddi said, still slightly confused at where she had ended up. The gargoyle snorted.

"Password?" it said jeeringly.

"Um… it's… oh no…" she'd forgotten. Dumbledore had said it only last night!

Maddi thought frantically. He had a strange affiliation with sweets. She had always been fascinated with Chocolate Frogs…

"Chocolate Frogs!" she yelled excitedly, finally remembering.

"Alright, alright, no need to shout," grumbled the gargoyle, and jumped aside to allow her to step on to the spiral staircase rising up out of the stone floor.

Maddi's palms began to sweat. Her stomach skipped butterflies and went straight to knots._ "What's going to happen to me?" _she thought frantically. Slowly she reached the handsome wooden door and knocked softly.

"Enter," said the voice within, and she slowly pushed the door open.

She couldn't help hungrily drinking in the sight of Dumbledore's office again. She was like a child at an amusement park, desperately trying to brand the image into her memory for fear of losing it. Memories could be lost as quickly and easily as a front door key.

"Ah, Miss Bennett," a soft voice said kindly; rather than ripping her unceremoniously from her reverie, the voice invited Maddi to experience the scene more fully, to become a part of it.

"Good morning, Professor Dumbledore," she answered politely, and couldn't help smiling gleefully at the old man she addressed.

"Now, Miss Bennett, as I said last night, we must decide what is to be done with you. I have spoken to Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape, and we have agreed that you must stay here at Hogwarts, because we cannot very well turn you out into the street," Dumbledore smiled at her. "Please, if you wish, celebrate in your own way. I understand this must be a very exciting event for you."

Maddi couldn't help it; she jumped into the air and let out a whoop of joy. "I get to stay?!" she shouted enthusiastically.

"You do," Dumbledore's piercing blue eyes were laughing. "My colleagues and I have also decided that we must test you to see if you possess any magical ability. If you can perform magic it seems imprudent to keep you here without teaching you anything. In order to do this, Professor McGonagall will take you to Diagon Alley to Mr Ollivander, the wand maker. I trust you are familiar with both place and person?"

Maddi could barely contain the waves of excitement crashing over every fibre of her being. "I am, very familiar, Sir."

"Excellent. I have arranged for a Portkey to take you," he gestured to a chipped coffee mug that sat on the desk between them. "You are also familiar with – "

"I'm familiar with Portkeys too, Professor," Maddi interrupted gleefully.

Dumbledore laughed. "Well, I can see you are eager to be on your way. The Portkey is due to leave in…" he referred to his strange watch with planets circling gracefully around its face, "about one minute. Where is Professor McGonagall?"

At that moment they heard a sharp rap on the door. "Enter," said the Headmaster, and Minerva McGonagall strode purposefully into the room.

"Minerva, the Portkey is just about to leave. Miss Bennett, if you would be so kind…"

Both Professor McGonagall and Maddi grasped the cup, and then Maddi felt an invisible force grab her from behind the navel, and Dumbledore's office was whisked out of sight.


End file.
